Baby Toys
by OneDream 2Dream
Summary: It was a bad idea to bring him into a Toys R Us for multiple reasons. Mother's Day 2012 fic. Somewhat...


**Title: Baby Toys**

**Disclaimer: This story was brought to you by a person who forgets her ideas extremely easily. Not Andrew Marlowe, Toys R Us, Elmo, or Barbie.**

**Dedication: For my mom, who introduced me to Castle.**

**Author's Note: This started as a Mother's Day fic and ended up as, well, this. Let's all pretend that Always happened, but Beckett magically got her job back. No real spoilers. And is anyone else happy for summer? It's 72 degrees (fahrenheit) here! That's pretty warm!**

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The case took them to a Toys R Us . And no, not the giant one in the middle of Times Square, but a smaller one towards the outskirts of the city. This was the Toys R Us that many of the New York City resident families shopped at, for the large one frequently had very, very annoying tourists running around everywhere.

They walked in and headed directly to the Customer Service area, where a nice lady with dark brown locks stood, eagerly waiting for someone to talk to. "How may I help you?" She asked politely.

Beckett gave a small smile before going with her usual procedure. "My name is Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. Does this girl work here?" She questioned, pulling out a picture of the victim.

The clerk scrunched her nose in thought. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she does. I don't think she works my shift though. Why?"

"Can I speak to your employer?" She somewhat demanded kindly, if that was even possible.

The girl nodded, still befuddled. "He'll be out of his meeting within the next five minutes. What's this about?"

The detective had a mental war with herself about whether or not to tell the young girl. Her compassionate side gave in. "She was murdered two nights ago."

"Oh my god. That's terrible! I can call him if you need him that badly," The girl exclaimed, frantic.

Castle shook his head. "It's fine. We can wait a minute. Where's his office?"

The girl hurried them over to a small hallway off the side of the baby section. "It's the first one right there. Do you want to go in?"

Beckett shook her head. "It's fine. We can wait right here."

The girl scurried off, shaking her head. Beckett looked to her partner. "She was an interesting character."

"Think she had anything to do with it?"

"Probably not," The brunette responded calmly, wandering around the aisles. He followed, stopping every few seconds or so to play with a toy.

She glanced back at him. Why she started to wander was a mystery to her. Beckett knew that taking him through a bunch of kids' toys was a bad idea. But she liked seeing the childish look on his face and kids' toys were actually quite interesting.

She noticed the first one that completely held his attention was a small kitchen set that had various buttons and sets of play food. When you pressed a button on different things, it would talk in English and Spanish. It was a clever idea.

The next one was a singing Elmo that played guitar. She found it rather creepy, but Castle seemed to find it hilarious. She guessed some kids would enjoy it, but…

"I like this one," He stated.

It was times like these when she momentarily forgot why she was in love with him. "Castle, I'd go insane if that thing was in my house. I can't stand it now, let alone if my kid played it dozens of times a day."

He glanced over at her, raising his eyebrows. "Thinking about having kids?"

"Not if they wanted that thing," She stated, rolling her eyes and continuing to walk down another aisle. But by that time, she was thinking about babies. One with her hair, but blue eyes and- wait a minute…

He didn't stop again until they simultaneously saw a single toy that caught both of their eyes. This was a stuffed bear that had a book on it where you tapped on pictures of different things it asked you to find. It was like I Spy for babies. When you turned the page, the bear asked you to find something else. "This is clever," He told her as they both looked at it.

She gave a small laugh. "Yeah. Our kids would love it."

She couldn't figure out what she had said until he was looking over at her with some sort of a smug smile and eyes that seemed to darken with unbridled emotion. "Ah, so now we're having kids now, Detective Beckett? What else happens in that mind of yours that I don't already know?"

Trying hard not to blush, she decided that talking wasn't her best option. With all of her attention going to her ablaze cheeks, she'd surely stutter.

"Speechless?" The writer joked, still holding the toy in his hand.

"N-no. Shut up," She managed. Barely.

And then, the lovely manager decided to show up. "Can I help you find anything? If you're a mother to be, we have lots of things for you this Mother's Day, as well as if you're already a mother…"

It was very hard to not slap Castle, who was trying hard not to laugh by biting his finger. It was very hard not to kick the manager for assuming she was pregnant, or a mother. (Who does that?) It was hard to stay professional at all.

"N-no," She managed to squeak out, clearing her voice when she heard herself. "I'm Detective Beckett, and this is Castle. We need to ask you about a Melisa Carpenter."

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The interview went smoothly, and they had a lead on the boyfriend who stopped in to see her the day before she was murdered and threw a Barbie box at her.

Beckett wanted to throw a Barbie box at Castle, who still looked mildly amused from the initial run-in with the manager and her accidental comments. "Will you stop smiling at me already?" She grumbled, giving him her signature look.

"Happy Mother's Day, Kate!" He told her, trying not to laugh hysterically.

She bit her tongue before coming up with a good response. "Well fine. You can walk home," She told him, hurrying off in the direction of the car.

He looked confused for a second, (hah!) but quickly realized what was happening when she jumped in the car, turned the key in the ignition, and began driving away. Beckett knew she'd probably pay for this later, but found it all too funny to watch his face go from smug to confused to slightly annoyed.

However, as she turned around to go back and retrieve him, (she wouldn't really leave him) his words kept echoing in her mind. "_Happy Mother's Day, Kate." _It didn't have such a bad ring to it. She could get used to that.

Not that she'd admit that.

Yet.


End file.
